Welcome to A RAW Opinion, this week WWE Raw comes live from Nashville, Tennessee, Vince McMahon will be in the house again tonight as CM Punk gives him his decision on who to face at Hell In A Cell, will it be John Cena or Ryback? Jim Ross will be back on commentary tonight, with tonights show being in Nashville I’m almost hoping Jerry Lawler is doing a little bit of commentary tonight, he is however being advertised for the SmackDown! taping tomorrow night which comes from his hometown of Memphis.
We kick off this weeks show with The Big Show coming to the ring, he talks about the debate he and Sheamus were in a couple of weeks ago, blah blah blah, he’s going to win the title, blah blah blah, he’s gonna knock Sheamus out. Big Show shouldn’t be given a microphone for longer then 2 minutes. On a side note, he talks about the WMD punch he uses, why not just use it as soon as the bell rings? Fans start chanting the length of time it took Daniel Bryan to beat him for the title, he wants Daniel Bryan out there now, we go backstage, Daniel says he isn’t going out there, AJ comes over to him and tells him to get out there. He goes out there yelling NO. We have ourselves an impromptu match here.
Big Show VS Daniel Bryan was pretty short, Big Show gets the clean win after a choke slam, looks like they’re really trying to get people to see him as a legit threat again. After the match, Kane came out from the back almost laughing at Bryan. Big Show was about to hit Daniel with the WMD until Kane got in the ring, Big Show backed down and left.
Up next we’re going to find out who CM Punk has chosen to face at Hell In A Cell. Paul Heyman is in the ring and he introduces CM Punk, he gives a great promo as usual, he has a picture set up of his opponent, he takes off the curtain, CM Punk stops, the fans keep booing him, he says since the fans aren’t showing him any respect, he’s going to go to the back and think it over some more, this brings out Vince McMahon, Vince says that he will now decide who will face Punk at Hell In A Cell, tonight we will have a contract signing between CM Punk and whoever Vince chooses, we’ll find out Punks opponent later tonight.
Brodus Clay VS Alberto Del Rio up next. Alberto beats Clay cleanly with the cross arm breaker. Thats two weeks in a row that Brodus has lost a fairly quick match cleanly. Time to change the mans gimmick, again.
Zack Ryder and Santino Marella teaming up this week to take on Prime Time Players. Prime Time Players get the win, Titus got the pin on Zack Ryder. After the match Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal come out and attack Ryder. This gimmick is absolutely terrible.
Vickie Guerrero comes out with Dolph Ziggler, Ziggler gets on the microphone and says Ryback being a candidate for a WWE title match is pretty much a joke considering what Ziggler has had to do to get the MITB briefcase, he says he steals the show night in and night out and still couldn’t get a shot until going through 7 other people. David Otunga interrupts and says that Ryback OR Dolph don’t deserve any title shot. AJ comes out and says Dolph and Otunga are going to take on RyBerg in a 2 on 1 handicap match. Yipee…
RyBerg VS Otunga and Ziggler up next, Ziggler eventually leaves Otunga all alone after RyBerg stared a hole through him, RyBerg gets the win, yawn. I really don’t get how this guy is over…
Vince McMahon VS Paul Heyman will take place tonight… Awesome… If Heyman wins, CM Punk will be able to pick his opponent.
Antonio Cesaro VS Justin Gabriel up next. Cesaro gets the win in a pretty good match, Gabriel got more offense in then I thought he would.
Matt Striker VS Kane is up next, this match came after Striker wanted an apology for what Kane and Daniel did to him, but AJ heard him say crazy and booked him in this. Striker tried to shake Kanes hand, Kane and Striker hugged instead until Striker tried to leave, Kane choked slammed him and won.
MizTV makes its return next… Joy! His guest is Kofi Kingston. Kofi challenges Miz to a match tonight. This segment is boring for the most part. MizTV didn’t work in 2007 and it doesn’t work now in 2012. Kofi attacks Miz during the talk show segment.
Sheamus comes out next, his opponent is Wade Barrett. Big Show came out with a chair a little after it started, he set it up at the top of the ramp and watched the match. Another very good match by these two. Sheamus had Barrett in the Cloverleaf, Big Show came walking down the ramp, Sheamus let go and got in his face, Barrett whipped Sheamus toward the rope and Big Show pulled the rope down causing a DQ win for Sheamus.
Eve defends her Divas Championship against Layla up next. This was actually a pretty good match. Eve gets the win here but Laylas foot was on the rope but the referee missed it.
Team Rhodes Scholars take on Primo and Epico. I didn’t get to see Rosa dance, I hate that. I dozed off during the match so I really don’t know what happened. Rhodes and Sandow bore me.
Miz VS Kofi Kingston up next. Very good match between these two, Kofi hit Trouble in Paradise out of nowhere, great spot, I didn’t even see it coming either, impressive considering how quick he had to react. Looks like Miz might be legit hurt, and I wouldn’t doubt it, looked like the kick caught him pretty good.
So apparently we aren’t getting Heyman VS Vince, thank god. Vince McMahon is coming down to the ring for the contract signing. CM Punk comes out, Vince introduces both Cena and Ryback. Punk signs the contract saying Vince is gonna do what he wants anyway, so it doesn’t matter whoever he puts in there will lose. Cena was basically Rybacks cheerleader and led a “Feed me more” chant, Ryback signs the contract, great…
Overall, I didn’t think it was that great a show again this week. I give it a 2/5 this week, I’m really not happy about Ryback getting a shot at Punks title, the one good thing is, no way Ryback keeps his undefeated streak.
It has been an NXT kind of night with ADR/Brodus, Ryder/Titus/Young, and Ryback/Otunga
LikeLike
That shot Miz took was brutal!
LikeLike
Awesome kick by Kofi.
LikeLike
Check out the gif…
http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=397403&page=7
LikeLike
Great angle on the kick on Miz.
LikeLike
I also apologize for the lack of overall thought this week, my computer crapped out on me before the final segment and it took me almost 20 minutes to get it working again. But yes, that shot Miz took looked bad, should be interesting to see if Miz VS Kofi still happens at the Main Event taping tonight.
LikeLike
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Ryback will win the WWE title at HIAC.
LikeLike
He’s not ready, but I think he could thrive in a “Hell” setting.
LikeLike
I don’t think he’s ready either but I certainly wouldn’t rule out him winning.
LikeLike
Wouldn’t shock me to see Brock get involved, leading to a “Heyman” team and a “Vince?” team at SS.
LikeLike
It would be great to have a 5 on 5 at SS that actually meant something unlike years gone by.
LikeLike
At least one is planned for this year.
LikeLike
Don’t even joke like that! I will snap.
LikeLike
I agree with Capt. in saying he’s not ready but I too wouldn’t rule that out. However I think WWE want Punk to have the belt for at least 1 year at this stage. It’s a win-win situation for both wrestlers. If Punk wins he has defeated a monster of a man inside a dexterous cage and for Ryback he gains HUGE main event experience and has an opportunity to show he can be a main eventer. Hopefully he can become WWE’s ”next big star” out of it.
LikeLike
Yeah, Foley lost his famous Cell match and wasn’t shunned at all. It’s what turned him face.
Ryback isn’t at that level yet, so losing your first match to one of the bigtime champs isn’t gonna hurt him. He’s just got to hang with Punk.
LikeLike
It would be great to see Punk hold the title for a year+. It helps add value to the title thats been whored out the last few years.
LikeLike
I didn’t see all of Raw this week. I saw the first hour and the closing segment. By reading your review it didn’t seem hour two and half of hour 3 was worth watching. But from what I saw I thought it was okay. Glad Ryback was picked over Cena. WWE need fresh main eventers and if Ryback works well inside HIAC that will establish him as ”officially” a main eventer.
LikeLike
Ryback doesn’t lack confidence anyway since he said he was better than Goldberg. I expect Ryback to do well and maybe win.
LikeLike
I’m glad for the new face in the main event also, I just wish it wasn’t Ryback, the guy just doesn’t appeal to me at all, and I hate the fact that Vince loves him just because of his size. I really feel bad for the guys who could actually be main eventers RIGHT NOW had the WWE not pulled the rug out from under them, guys like Zack Ryder and Drew McIntyre come to the top of my head right now.
LikeLike
Drew and Zack need more build. I’m sure the fact that Ryback is catching on with the fans has a lot to do with Ryback getting this. On top of that, who know? Maybe Ryback and Punk have good chemistry?
LikeLike
I doubt Zack Ryder in his current gimmick would ever be a main eventer.
LikeLike
Yeah, they’d have to change some things.
LikeLike
Raw’s rating was 2.79 this week.
LikeLike
Will be even worse this coming week with the final debate on the same night. I’ll record RAW and watch the debate. Last night, it almost felt like RAW. lol
LikeLike
Looks like Vince will be pissed off next Monday night then.
LikeLike
So, what else is old? lol
LikeLike
Good recap of what was a 3 hour show with about 2 hours of filler. Highlights for me had to be Punk subtly talking about slapping the wrong nerd last week and how he’d do it again if the fans disrespect him, either verbally or physically. Loved that. Anything involving Punk/Heyman is gold for me at the moment. Even the way Punk does that ‘I’m not scared of you Ryback, but I really am’ look all the time.
Vince’s 1930’s Chicago gangster suit was f’n pimp.
Cesaro’s uppercut on Gabriel was a thing of beauty. Second only to Kofi’s kick on Miz. THAT’S how you get over with JR – just kick the ever loving crap out of Miz’s head!
I thought Ryback would be main eventing in WWE in about 6 months, but obviously the injury to Cena has put his shove into top gear. He’s connecting with the live crowd though, so the WWE machine is working well. Just not sure how they’re going to get out of HITC with both guys still as over as they are. Punk needs to be champ for over a year. Ryback probably needs to stay undefeated too. No DQ. No escape the cell….hmmmm. This is why having Hell in the Cell as a gimmick PPV is completely retarded. Apart from the fact it used to be the match to end big feuds and now it’s just another PPV. They’ve booked themselves into a corner with this, hope they can get out of it.
Anyway, 3MB rock! Kane/DB still entertaining me. Even Sheamus and Show was good this week.
Not a great episode of RAW but i’ve seen plenty worse. Thanks for the review man, keep up the good work!
LikeLike